Islamabad, Pakistan ? As many as eight people were killed and 24 injured Monday in Pakistan’s capital after a powerful car bomb ripped through the Danish Embassy.

The bombing was the first to occur in Islamabad in a little more than two months, and the second this year to target foreigners living and working in the Pakistani capital. Pakistan has been racked by political unrest and violence since early last year, but attacks have intensified considerably since the country’s former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated Dec. 27. More than 150 people have been killed in violence since parliamentary elections Feb. 18.

The explosion occurred about 1 p.m. in the heart of one of the most closely guarded areas of the city. A six-foot-wide crater was left in the road about 12 feet from the embassy gates, where a car packed with an estimated 44 pounds of explosives stopped before the blast occurred, officials said.

Most of the embassy’s foreign workers had moved following a decision by Danish newspapers in February to republish a controversial cartoon showing the Islamic prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb as a turban.